The Rainmaster’s eyes flashed. “During Astral-10’s examination, there were a few plants that were transplanted from the Sand Ocean that could indeed strengthen the physical body. They were placed there for the students to compete over them while also improving some students’ chances of passing the examination. However, those plants were very normal, so how did this happen?”
Lu Yin blinked. “Student doesn’t know what happened either.”
The Rainmaster immediately contacted the Sandmaster. When the Sandmaster saw the five gleaming fruits, he was left rather speechless. “Kid, tell me the truth. Where did you get these toys? These are definitely not from the examination grounds since we only moved a batch of very average strengthening fruits back there. I would guess that these fruits have survived for over ten thousand years, which is rather rare.”
Lu Yin was delighted. “Do they have any use for the physical body?”
“Obviously. These things are used to temper the physical body. Those ordinary strengthening fruits would only be effective on Sentinels and Melders, but these ones will help even you. It will have a considerable effect, but it’s a pity. If they were improved just a step further, they would become top-notch strengthening fruits, which would greatly enhance your physical body. They might even allow your body to approach the physique of an Explorer who has adapted to the universe.”
“Where can one obtain such top-notch strengthening fruits?” Lu Yin was curious.
The Sandmaster shook his head. “Those strengthening fruits can only be found in the herbal gardens of certain great powers after maturing for 50,000 years. They aren’t something that you can wish for, so obtaining a strengthening fruit at this level is already pretty good.” With that, he tossed the five fruits back to Lu Yin and left, not bothering to ask Lu Yin any more questions about where the fruits had come from.
“Rainmaster, are the effects of every natural treasure better the older the natural treasure is?” Lu Yin asked expectantly.
The mentor nodded. “Theoretically, yes. However, the universe is constantly changing. Even if you ignore what humans may do, many natural treasures cannot survive for very long and will end up becoming sourceboxes.”
Lu Yin instantly understood. It was like the scent shrub that he had once unlocked for a client; that plant had been uncommon during some era of the universe, and hence, it had been turned into an sourcebox. In the current era, however, it was no longer as rare. If not for its ancient age, that scent shrub would not have even been worth the cost of the lockbreaking.
The Ten Arbiters’ Hand of God had been able to use Thirty Stacks of the Overlaying Stacks Path when he had been a Limiteer, but nobody knew how many natural treasures he had eaten. Lu Yin envied him, but it was still alright as Lu Yin had his die. As long as he had money, even the worst strengthening fruit could be upgraded to the extent where it would arouse others’ suspicions.
“Any other questions?” the Rainmaster asked.
Lu Yin thought of his domain. “Mentor, how can we cultivate our domain?”
The Rainmaster muttered, “Neither domains nor battle force have any fixed methods of cultivation. You have upgraded your battle force to five lines, but that didn’t happen one step at a time. A domain is the same—fated coincidences could cause it to become exaggeratedly powerful, or it could remain at the same level for your entire life.”
“Mentor, is the Rain Observatory a domain?” Lu Yin asked as he raised his head.
The mentor smiled faintly. He rarely smiled, and he looked at Lu Yin with approval. “That’s right, the Rain Observatory was created by a predecessor’s domain. It allows you to display your own domain, and it can even forcefully alter the environment and force the environment to cater to you. It can even be expanded limitlessly and encompass a planet, a filament, or even the entire universe. Of course, that last part is just a theory as nobody knows if anyone’s domain can truly encompass the universe.”
Lu Yin was excited. It would be too mysterious if a single domain could hold the universe!
Lu Yin left the Rain Observatory after that. He had originally wanted to head to the Sand Ocean to cultivate his battle force, but he had changed his mind. He needed some money to finish upgrading his strengthening fruits to the peak level. Then, he would be able to upgrade his physical body and use more overlaying stacks. If he could use Thirty Stacks, there would be no need to worry about the Tournament of the Strongest.
His previous conjecture had indeed been correct, as the title of Ten Arbiters’ candidate was just an overstatement. The Hand of God Arbiter had been able to display Thirty Stacks while still at the Limiteer realm, which was a power level that definitely surpassed the current Lu Yin. If he had reached such heights, then what about the other Ten Arbiters? They should all have been at around the same level; thus, the current so-called Ten Arbiters’ candidates were still quite far from the Ten Arbiters’ level of strength when they had been in the Limiteer realm.
He wondered how powerful Liu Shaoqiu’s Fourth Sword had become by now. Perhaps that technique would display a strength that could rival the power of the Ten Arbiters when they had been Limiteers.
There had been 450,000 star energy crystals left in Lu Yin’s Mavis Bank card. Lu Yin had withdrawn them all, and it had reached a point where his cosmic ring could barely hold them all, and there was not much space left. He needed to spend some time acquiring a bigger cosmic ring, though one of higher quality could not be obtained very easily.
It hadn’t been long since he had rolled the die, so Lu Yin wondered if he could even roll three pips—Enhance.
Lu Yin felt rather confused after returning to Astral-10. It was difficult to roll, and that was true the more frequently he rolled his die. He recalled his previous experience in the Great Yu Empire when he had to enter Time Stop. It had been very painful for him, and he had to rest for ten days after each roll, or else he would have fallen unconscious for five days.
Lu Yin thought about it, but he still decided to attempt it in the end. He randomly found an abandoned piece of land and sat down cross-legged on the ground.
“Seventh Bro, you can’t be planning to screen me off?” the Ghost Monkey suddenly spoke out, as if he had felt a bad premonition.
Lu Yin grunted in the affirmative. “Brace yourself, I’m about to screen you.”
“Seventh Bro, please! What secret do you have that you do not wish for me to discover? We’ve even shared the secret of Progenitor Wushang, so what secrets could there be that surpass the Progenitor’s inheritance? No, please no! Please don’t screen me,” the monkey begged desperately, but Lu Yin ignored his pleas and immediately blocked him.
Progenitor Wushang’s inheritance was indeed the greatest secret that he had, but it was useless to Lu Yin since it was too distant at the moment. The secret of his die also might not be any worse than Progenitor Wushang’s inheritance; it could freeze time, enhance and upgrade material objects, and steal items from other peoples’ cosmic rings. These abilities exceeded that of a normal cultivators’ innate gift, and if this information were to be revealed, Lu Yin believed that he would have nowhere to hide no matter how vast the universe may be.
He tapped on the die, which quickly spun before stopping on one pip: Pilfer. Lu Yin was not surprised, as Pilfer was a common roll.
Thump! Lu Yin looked at the ground, and his eyebrows jumped in surprise. Who puts roasted meat in their cosmic ring?! There was even steam coming off of the meat; who would be this senseless? He obliterated the meat with one hand. Again.
The second roll was Pilfer once again, and a piece of clothing dropped out. It was a beautiful set of women’s clothes. Lu Yin subconsciously looked around and felt that he was extremely lucky that no one was around to witness this. He destroyed the clothing immediately. Again.
The third time was Pilfer yet again, and he was rendered speechless at the result. Why is it always Pilfer? Although, this was to be expected when he rolled the die too often.
However, something unique fell out of the space channel this time.
Lu Yin picked up the chip that had fallen on the ground and inserted it into his gadget. Countless unknown symbols appeared on his screen, all surrounding a humanoid shaped machine that had a very refined appearance. Even as a technologically inept person, he could tell that this machine was quite sophisticated and complicated. The entire memory bank of the chip was filled with a few designs of humanoid machinery technology and even more strange symbols.
Lu Yin put the chip aside. It didn’t really matter that he could not understand the information; he could just hand it over to Ban Jiu when he returned to the Great Yu Empire. He should be able to decipher the information.
At the same time, in the depths of the universe, within the Technocracy’s territory, enormous machines populated the heavens.
This was an important day for Little R1O. He was going to show those people his blueprints for the latest model of human transformation technology that he had successfully developed. He wanted to obtain the highest allocation of resources and make his name known throughout the universe.
Since a young age, Little R1O had been known as an inventor. He had created many things, though not many had practical uses. Finally, ten years ago, he had coincidentally chanced upon some plans for human transformation. From that point forward, he had decided to devote himself to this research subject. Ten years of blood, sweat, and tears had passed, but he had finally succeeded in his research.
His proposal to transform humans would surpass the other trash. In the future, those transformed humans that waged war against the Human Domain would come from his own hand. He wanted to be known everywhere, and he wanted the entire universe to worship him!
He became more agitated as he thought about the possible future and stood motionless as he tried to suppress his emotions. He had even revised his speech multiple times; of course it had needed to be looked through. He was certain that this speech would change the structure of the entire universe.
Hold on, where’s the proposal chip? Little R1O searched through his cosmic ring. Eh, it’s gone? Really gone? Where did it go? Where’s the proposal chip?!
Little R1O’s face turned deathly pale white; had he not brought it? Impossible, he had checked his ring a dozen times before he had left. How could he have left it behind? Could he have dropped it? Was his cosmic ring that unreliable?
Meanwhile, Lu Yin took a deep breath as there was only one roll left after his third one. He tapped the die, causing it to slowly spin around. Then, the scenery before his eyes changed and he appeared in the Time Stop Space.
Lu Yin was rather disappointed, but this was still a good outcome.
He did not think about any more what-ifs and quickly extended his time in the space to thirty days, consuming over a thousand star energy crystals in the process. He then recited the Stonewall Scriptures and quickly fell asleep.
Within the Time Stop Space, ten days quickly passed by. He opened his eyes and raised his hand, allowing his die to reappear. He tapped on it, and it landed on five pips: Gift Copy. Useless. He continued to recite the Stonewall Scriptures, falling asleep, and then rolling his die.
Just like that, he repeated this cycle several times, and soon, fifty days had passed in the Time Stop Space.
Lu Yin had already resolved to himself that this would be his last roll, and that no matter the result, he would leave afterwards. He could not handle this space anymore, and the lonely environment was too unbearable.
The die slowly spun, and when it finally stopped, two screens appeared, one above another. Lu Yin was ecstatic; he had finally rolled three pips: Enhance.
When he had upgraded these fruits in the Great Yu Empire, it had cost him 1500 star crystals for the strengthening fruits’ last upgrade, and that had improved the five fruits to the point where they had taken on a golden sheen. This time, Lu Yin did not plan to upgrade all five at once, as each consecutive upgrade would only consume more and more resources. Instead, he would upgrade them one at a time from now on.
He placed one strengthening fruit on the upper screen and casually threw out more than 10,000 star crystals. The strengthening fruit landed on the ground with a thump, and the golden radiance intensified even brighter while more than half of the crystals had been depleted. Again, and again, and again. For the fifth upgrade, Lu Yin threw out another 200,000 star crystals, and this was enough to cause the strengthening fruit to drop more than halfway down. At this point, Lu Yin only had about 180,000 star crystals left.
He grit his teeth and threw out another 100,000. This caused the fruit to move a bit more, but it needed a little more to finish its upgrade, so he threw out 20,000 more crystals. The fruit finally completely fell through the screen, and it no longer emitted a golden radiance. Instead, it seemed transparent, and just its presence caused the void to distort. There was also the indistinct sound of blood pumping through veins.
Thrilled, Lu Yin snatched up the fruit. He had no more money to upgrade the fruit any further, and it had taken him nearly 400,000 star energy crystals to upgrade just one strengthening fruit to this level. Any further upgrades would cost him multiple times what he had spent on this last upgrade, and he wouldn’t dare to try it unless he had a billion star energy crystals. Still, this level of a strengthening fruit should be effective on him.
It had only taken him 30,000 star energy crystals to upgrade the four-stage formcast model to the fifth stage; in comparison, this strengthening fruit had consumed much more.
Lu Yin was rather exuberant. He briefly considered his options and then increased the time in the Time Stop Space by ten more days before swallowing the strengthening fruit in a single mouthful.
